Brown Butter Blueberry Buckle

The rich, nutty flavor of brown butter underlies every bite of this blueberry buckle. Every single bite. The butterscotchiness plays well with the oats in the topping and just a hint of lemon brightens it all up and makes it the perfect summer dessert!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 50

Total Time 1

Servings

Calories 287kcal

Author Jennifer Field

Equipment

Ingredients

For the Streusel

2 oz unsalted butter 1/2 stick cut into small cubes
heavy pinch of salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
3 oz brown sugar about 1/2 cup, packed
1 oz cake flour about 1/4 cup
.5 oz rolled oats about 1/4 cup

For the Blueberry Buckle

3 oz butter
5.5 oz plain yogurt about 3/4 cup)
4 oz buttermilk 1/2 cup. I use whole milk buttermilk
¼ teaspoon lemon extract
1 large egg
⅔ cup dark brown sugar packed
9 oz all purpose flour about 2 cups
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pint fresh or frozen blueberries do not thaw first if using frozen

Instructions

For the Streusel

Whisk together all the ingredients but the butter.
With the tips of your fingers, work the butter into the flour/sugar mixture until there is not too much loose, sandy stuff in the bottom of your bowl.
You can leave it somewhat sandy, or you can mix it until it looks like cookie dough and then scatter small pieces over your batter. Either way is just fine.
Set aside.

For the Buckle

Preheat the oven to 375F.
Prepare your pan 9" springform or 9" x 2" cake pan. I sprayed mine with pan spray, fitted a circle of parchment in the bottom, and sprayed again. Set aside.
Brown the butter in a small saucepan. Once the milk solids have fallen and are a deep medium-brown color, strain the butter through a fine mesh strainer and set aside to cool a bit.
Whisk the warm butter, yogurt, buttermilk, lemon extract, and egg together. Set aside.
Whisk together the brown sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. and cinnamon together.
Pour the yogurt mixture over the dry ingredients.
Add the berries now.
Fold everything together as well as you can. This makes a fairly stiff dough--like very gooey cookie batter--so do the best you can with about 15-20 "folds." Try to make sure that the berries are as evenly distributed as possible, but don't make yourself crazy.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan/tins.
Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the batter. There's a lot, but use it all.
Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes.
Rotate the pan and turn the oven down to 350F. Continue baking until the streusel is a deep golden-brown, the berries are bubbling, and a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 20-30 minutes more. If you have an instant read thermometer, you're looking for about 200F.
Let cool in the pan for about twenty minutes. Run a narrow spatula around the inside of your pan. Unlock the spring mechanism and remove the sides of your springform pan. If using a one-piece cake pan, turn out onto a plate and then re-invert onto a cooling rack to cool right side up.
Let cool and glaze as desired or serve with some ice cream or whipped cream.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Commence to Sighing Happily.

Notes

To Brown Butter

Weigh out the butter and cut it into pieces for even melting.
Cook over medium to medium-high heat, watching it carefully. No need to stir, but you can swirl the pan.
First, the butter will sputter as the water cooks out, (middle left image).
After the milk solids fall to the bottom of your pan, it will get very foamy. Swirl the pan so you can see the color of the browned bits on the bottom.
Stop when the milk solids are a deep brown but not burnt and immediately pour into a heat-safe container to cool down a bit.

Please also watch the How To Brown Butter Video if you do better with video and not written directions or photos.

Substitutions

If you don't have yogurt, you can use all buttermilk for a total of 1 1/4 cups.
You don't have to brown the butter. You can just melt it and go from there.
Feel free to leave out the extract or use the zest of a lemon instead.
If you don't like--or don't have--oatmeal, just add an equal amount of additional flour and leave the oatmeal out altogether.
You can also bake this batter as streusel-topped muffins, if you'd like.

A Note On Baking Times

Baking times will vary depending on the size and shape of your pan and the depth of your batter. My final buckle was 9" in diameter and about 2" tall, and it took about 50 minutes to bake. Plan your time accordingly. If you use an 8" pan, it will most likely take an additional 10 minutes or so.

If the cake seems to be browning too much, loosely cover the top with foil.

Storing

Keep the cake, covered, at room temperature for up to 3 days. For longer storage, freeze individual slices and thaw either at room temperature or in the microwave for a few seconds.

Nutrition